History

The first Nigerian films
were made by filmmakers such as Ola
Balogun and Hubert
Ogunde in the 1960s, but they were frustrated by the high cost of
film production. However, television broadcasting in Nigeria began in
the 1960s and received much government support in its early years. By
the mid-1980s every state had its own broadcasting station. Law limited
foreign television content so producers in Lagos began televising local
popular theater productions. Many of these were circulated on video as
well, and a small scale informal video movie trade developed. Nigerian
film is thus a video movie industry; Nigerians call them 'home
videos'. There is some debate concerning what caused this small local
market in videos to explode into a booming industry that has pushed foreign
media off the shelves in much of Africa and is now marketed all over the
world. Use of English rather than local languages served to expand the
market. Aggressive marketing using posters, trailers, and television advertising
also played a role in Nollywood's success. Many point to the 1992 release
of Living
in Bondage, a film about a businessman whose dealings with a money
cult result in the death of his wife, as the industry's first blockbuster.
Since then, thousands of movies have been released. One of the first Nigerian
movie to reach international fame was the 2003 release Osuofia
In London, starring Nkem
Owoh, the famous Nigerian comedic actor. Modern Nigerian cinema’s
most prolific auteur is Chico
Ejiro, who directed over 80 films in a 5-year period and brags that
he can complete production on a movie in as little as three days. Ejiro’s
brother Zeb is the best-known director of these videos outside of the
country.

The first Nollywood films were produced with traditional analog video,
such as Betacam SP, but today all Nollywood movies are produced using
digital video technology. Only recently, Time magazine published an article
rating the industry as the third-largest after Hollywood and Bollywood.

Production

In the early days, Nollywood had one studio, Studio Tinapa in Tinapa, Calabar. Most movies,
however, are not produced in studios in the Hollywood style. Video movies
are shot on location all over Nigeria with distinct regional variations
between the northern movies (made primarily in the Hausa language), the
western Yoruba-language movies, the
Igbo movies shot in the southeast,(Benin
City) Edo Language shot in Benin city and the popular English-language
productions, also shot primarily in the southeast. Many of the big producers
have offices in Surulere, Lagos. Shooting films in Nigeria is difficult.

Nigerian directors adopt new technologies as soon as they become affordable.
Bulky videotape cameras gave way to their digital descendents, which are
now being replaced by HD cameras. Editing, music, and other post-production
work is done with common computer-based systems.